


Where The Song Continues

by spaghettifiend



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:35:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23843833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaghettifiend/pseuds/spaghettifiend
Summary: A cold night reminds Kakashi of an old bedtime story. [KakaGai] You kids ready to get SAD?
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Maito Gai | Might Guy, Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Where The Song Continues

Sakumo comes back to Kakashi in whispers: a memory here in the doorway or a forgotten phrase that echoes down the hall, through time. But one story he's never forgotten was the Old Man and the Singing Star. 

As a child, he begged to hear it before bed. As an adult, he begs to forget the sadness in his father's voice as he told it. 

\---

_"An old, ugly man who lived in the mountains had never found love. In his old age he lived as a hermit, watching the world go by from his lonely mountain-top cabin._

_One winter night, the old man went outside to see the stars and heard something: a quiet song that was neither sad nor happy. It was coming from the sky. Although he didnt know the words, he hummed along, not wanting the singer to be alone. When he did, an anemone of shimmering light sprouted in the heavens and began to descend. Inside the light was a woman, who had floated alone through the stars until someone returned her song. In doing so, she had also reached a great old age._

_They fell in love at first sight. The man and the star maiden married, and for several years they lived peacefully in the mountain cabin. One cold, snowy night, though, the old man awoke to find his wife leaving their home. Seeing that she hadn't put on shoes, he hurried through the snow after her._

_At the very place where they had first met, at the very top of the mountain, the old woman turned to face him._

_"I have to go back," she said. "Can't you hear it?"_

_He strained his old ears and caught the strands of a melody, once again coming from the sky - the same song as the night he had called her to earth. But how there was a chorus: dozens of voices, calling the star maiden back from where she had come._

_"Of course I'll go with you," he said._

_"But humans cannot go Where The Song Continues," she said. "If they do, they will lose every memory."_

_"So remind me every day," he said, taking her hand, "that you made this world a happy place for me."_

_And so they clasped hands and rose, high into the cold air, leaving the lonely mountaintop behind. As they crossed the bridge of heaven, into the place where The Song Continued, the old man did indeed forget his memories of living. But every time the stars come out, he falls in love with the star maiden all over again."_

\----

While Sakumo laid their futons down, Kakashi would strain his little ears at the window, listening for The Star Song. Once, he asked if his father had ever heard it. 

"Every night," the old man said, and laid down alone. 

Many years later, Kakashi would wonder what kind of Star Maiden his mother had been, that Sakumo would trade all memories of his son in order to join her among the stars...

\--- 

He hasn't been to a festival in years; there hadn't been one in many years, come to think of it. Not since the Kyuubi stole Minato and Kushina from him.  
With them had gone the fragile peace Kakashi had once felt, and the emptiness inside was deeper than the vacuum of space. 

Another lost boy was standing at the edge of the festivities, daring not to join. Grief was written all over him, from his slumped shoulders to the tears glistening in the corners of his black eyes. They were trained, as Kakashi's were, on the families frolicking beneath a lantern-lit sky. 

The boy sobbed to himself. And it suddenly struck Kakashi that whether it was the first time or the tenth, going to a festival without your father never got easier. 

"Here. Let me tell you a story," he said, sitting down next to Gai.

\----

Many years later, Kakashi would also find himself alone. He had by then acquired a long list of accomplishments and accolades: Jonin, Copy Ninja, Sixth Hokage and Advisor to the Seventh. He was old and ugly, with scars inside and out. And he had never found love. Or so he thought. 

It was no mountaintop, but from the top of his apartment building, Konoha stretched out before him like a sea of twinkling stars. Braced by the cold he stood, longer than he should have. Watching the world go by. 

He began to hum, just in case anyone was listening. 

"Kakashi," came from behind him. The man spoke quietly, but so suddenly that Kakashi still jumped. 

He watched Gai wobble through the powdery snow for a moment, then sighed and reached for the wheelchair handles. 

"How did you even get up the stairs?"

"It's cold," Gai said simply. "It's cold and you're only wearing sandals." 

So he was. But Kakashi was warm inside. It came from deep in his old bones - something like the core of a star, churning in the depths of the dark. 

"What were you humming?" 

"Just - calling for someone," Kakashi replied. 

"Was it me?" 

"Not exactly..."

"But I came anyway," Gai said.  
"Every time you asked. Just like you did for me." 

A lifetime flashed before his eyes: a lonely one, a life of aching absence and few constants.  
One of which was (as ever) waiting just an arm's length away, night sky mirrored in his space-black eyes, to remind Kakashi who had made this world a happy place for him, after everyone else left. 

"You sure did." 

As he took one of Gai's great, scarred hands in his own, Kakashi finally knew:  
this was who he would gladly follow beyond all memory. To Where the Song Continued. 

And from the stars, Sakumo smiled.


End file.
